The Messenger Is the Message

“The medium is the message” was coined by Marshall McLuhan in 1964. According to Wikipedia, he meant that "message" means content and character and the content of the medium is a message that is easily understood, but the character of the medium is another medium that is often missed or ignored. What? I tried to understand that, and act like I do, but I’m using that lead-in and replacing “medium” with “messenger” because in our polarized world, that makes more sense. The messenger is the message.

Take this, “Today’s children may be the ‘sickest generation’ ever due to ultraprocessed foods, chemical exposure, lack of movement, stress, and more.” Most agree. Even though the message comes from Robert Kennedy Jr. the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Most on the left say something like, “He’s wrong on thousands of things, but he’s right on this.”

Or this statement (paraphrased), “to combat obesity we must implement strategies to ensure access to healthy affordable food, increase physical activity, and empower parents and caregivers with information to make good choices for themselves and their families.” In this case, fifteen years ago, only about half the country agreed with the goals of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative.  

The right went bonkers with elected officials (Sarah Palin) bringing sugar cookies to events with students and mocking the Let’s Move  initiative. Now, the right loves pretty much the same message about being healthy. My hope is that we Americans can get healthier. And that everyone can look at the message and not just the messenger.